The Blackwood Fury

Alas, the gods had seen it fit to taint his eldest brother with the Blackwood Fury and chain his other brother to the madness.

Call it a curse or a sickness, the Blackwood Fury has affected the members of House Blackwood since the conception of Lord Edmund the Crow, bring forth a legacy of destruction and chaos.

What is the Blackwood Fury?

Found only in the members of House Blackwood, the Blackwood Fury is believed to be both a curse and a sickness. Those who are born with the Blackwood Fury experience terrible bouts of anger and rage, which are almost always impossible to control. These bouts of rage – or fury – can come on with or without invocation. A person can experience the Blackwood Rage whether they eating supper with their family or in the middle of a raging battlefield. Once a person has sparked the Blackwood Fury within their veins, it’s almost impossible to quench the sickness/curse until the rage has spread its course.

Signs of the Blackwood Fury

One of the reasons why the Blackwood Fury is so dangerous is because there are no signs that a person carries it until they experience an episode. There are neither abnormalities of the body nor birthmarks to signify that a person carries the curse/sickness. However, when experiencing an episode of the Blackwood Fury, the rims of their eyes will morph into a shade of bright red around the pupil. This is the telltale sign that a person is affected by the Blackwood Fury, rather than simply experiencing a normal bout of anger. The Blackwood Fury is predominant in the male members of House Blackwood, but there are a few cases where females have been touched by the curse/sickness.

History of the Blackwood Fury

In the year 894 AS, Lady Jane the Joyless, the second wife and first cousin of Lord Caspian of House Blackwood, ordered her personal guard and lover, Sir Gulliford, to kill her stepchildren. Their mother was Lord Caspian’s first wife and Lady Jane’s older sister, Lady Alannis. With all of Lord Caspian’s other children dead, the child that Lady Jane carried in her belly became heir to the Blackwood Realm. But the actions of Lady Jane greatly angered Kivoc, the father god of House Blackwood, for not only did Lady Jane murder innocent children for her own ambition, but she murdered her own nieces and nephews. And so, to punish Lady Jane for her sinful actions, Kivoc placed a curse on the child within her womb, forever tainting the Blackwood bloodline with the fury that he had felt during that dark time in House Blackwood’s history.

In the Books

The Girl with the Sun-Kissed Hair (Book #1)

The Blackwood Fury is first mentioned in Clarisse’s POV chapter. The Blackwood princess is explaining the difference between madness and the Blackwood Fury to her chamber mates, Anika and Filippa, during supper.

“The blood of my kin doesn’t carry madness”, defended Clarisse. She rips off another piece of bread from the common loaf and dips it in the salted oil. “We carry fury.”

Filippa waves her hand. “One in the same.”

“Oh, dear Filippa.” She gives her chamber mate a cold smile and struggles to keep her own rising fury at bay. “Until you witness a true episode of Blackwood Fury it’s impossible to describe. To call it madness is like calling a white horse a sheep.”